Welcome to the AC Tropical Fish aquarium forum. Our aquarium forum is the place to discuss any aquarium related issue in a friendly environment. Our aquarium forum welcomes aquarists of all levels from beginners to experts. Please ask a question in the how to section of our forum or read the FAQ section if you have any questions. register to and become a part of our friendly aquarium forum community today.

The resilience of nature!

1

This happened years ago. Just kind of something I found real interesting. A reservoir near me was doing repairs on the dam so they had the reservoir real low. Lower than it gets even if there is a bad drought. So me and a friend went walking around exploring. I saw about 1-1/2" snail that was out of the water from them lowering it. I noted that it was still alive being drawn tightly into it's shell. It had been out of the water in the sun for maybe a couple of days. Probably at least a day. I was going to leave it but my friend decided to take it home. So he stuck it in a tank by itself. Within an hour or two of putting it in there the snail popped out a bunch of babies.

Another interesting thing. For those with snails maybe it's a common thing to see. But to us it was something new. The surface tension of the water was enough that the babies were crawling across the tank underwater but against the top surface of the water. As if it was a solid surface.

I am not a fan of snails, even though I suffer with them in my tanks. But I do appreciate seeing and learning about all things in nature. So even this would be a nice sight to see - as long as it's in someone else tank!

My big mystery (apple) snail went missing from my 90 gal tank for a couple of days last week. When he didn't turn up I started looking around on the floor. Sure enough, he was behind the tank.It almost took an act of God for me to reach him. He was also all tucked in and all dried up. but I put him back in the tank. that night he was open all the way so I feared that he was dead because it takes muscle to close the trap door. But I left him until morning when I found him on the driftwood munching away.

Yep, nature has a way of working things out. Sometimes we do have to perform rescues, but by and large, if we just leave nature alone, it does its own thing as it was designed to do. More often than not, it seems, when we interfere we mess up the delicate balances and cause more harm than good. To intervene, only when it's absolutely necessary, we need to know what we're doing and how to go about it. But even when we don't, nature is resilient and often manages to survive, even thrive, despite our ignorance. This, however, only up to a point, as the Passenger Pigeon tragedy clearly teaches us. Too often, we humans take things for granted, and it backfires. Or else, we try to play God, and that also backfires.

As for aquatic snails, I've always considered them a natural part of the aquatic environment, so don't mind having them in my tanks, at all.